Modern day electronics rely on a number of key electrical components such as resistors, capacitors, and transistors. A transistor is a miniature electrical switch and today's computer processors can contain a few million of the devices in a single core. Each transistor contains three electrodes, which you can bias independently, and these are called the source, drain and gate. You can set the voltage levels for each of the electrodes by using two DC power supplies.
- Difficulty:
- Moderate
Instructions
Things You'll Need
- 2 DC power supply
- 4 banana plug wires
- 2 alligator clips
-
- 1 Connect the wires from the first DC power supply to the source and drain the electrodes of the transistor structure. A number of ways to do this exist, but DC power supplies normally take simple banana cable inputs. You can place alligator clips on the other side of these cables, which you can connect to the relevant pin on the transistor.
- 2 Connect the wires from the second DC power supply to the source and gate electrodes of the transistor structure. Now there are two connections to the transistor structure allowing the voltages of the gate, source and drain to be varied with the use of the power supplies.
- 3 Switch on the DC power supply connected to the source and drain the electrodes. Set the desired voltage by turning the voltage knob. The display should indicate the applied voltage. Switch on the DC power supply connected to the source and gate electrodes. Set the desired voltage by turning the knob. You can now set the voltage levels for each electrodes accordingly.
- 1